GSLEP

Wildlife

Lake

Facts

Oolitic Sand

Oolitic sand is the oblong, pill shaped sand comprising a large portion of the surface bottom of GSL. Oolitic sand is smooth, soft, and rounded while regular sand is jagged and inconsistent in shape. Just one handful can contain particles from ten to 1,000 years old! Oolitic beaches rim most of the lake's islands and much of the mainland coast. The western shore of Antelope Island is a great place to experience these beaches. In many areas, wind has made dunes up to several meters tall!

The nuclei of oolites can be brine shrimp fecal pellets, quartz grains, carbonate grains, or any other tiny debris. The nucleus attracts calcium and magnesium carbonate particles in concentric layers, thus creating Oolitic sand. This sequestering of waste is such an efficient process that wastewater management industries have used it as a template for processing and filtering!